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She tried to place the name, but failed. They had exchanged too much information since her capture for her to remember everything. “Who is Neloff?”
“My brother and the commander of our ship.” Tandor fiddled with levers and buttons inside a small compartment inset in the wall beside the shower. As with everything else in the house, the shower looked ordinary. A rectangular base with tiled walls and sliding glass doors. Tandor slid one side of the doors open and turned the large round knob. Water sputtered out of the showerhead for a moment then gushed in a steady stream. “There you go.” He motioned toward the shower with a smile. “Check under the sink. There should be a stack of towels.”
“Thank you.” She hesitated with her next request, not wanting to sound ungrateful. “There’s a change of clothes in my daypack. Can I go get it off the ship?”
“I’ll set the pack down outside the door.”
“Thank you,” she said again, surprised by his civility. She knew they were here to ‘court’ her, but that had seemed to mean something a lot more physical on the ship. Would their dominance resume as soon as she finished showering? Heat cascaded through her body and her nipples tingled. Her mind might resist the thought, but her body was clearly ready for more of what they’d given her on the ship.
Frustrated by the conflict inside her, Ansley locked the door, set out a towel, then stripped off her grimy clothes. The water was lukewarm and there was a single, unlabeled bottle resting on the corner organizer. Even so she was grateful. The opaque liquid inside the bottle smelled nice and lathered well, so she quickly washed herself from head to toe. Lingering in the shower seemed foolish. The door might be locked, but she was in the middle of the wilderness with two alien males. They had teleported to the top of the rock wall. A bathroom door was only a barrier if they allowed it to be.
Her senses stirred as her hands glided over her body. Never before had anyone taken control of her reactions. She’d lived under the founders’ authority her entire life so bowing to the will of others was nothing new. Being made to feel things,wantthings, however, was unusual and upsetting. Worst of all, she wasn’t sure how to combat the effect Jobek and Tandor had on her body. How could she resist something so pleasurable? Just thinking about the orgasms they’d wrung from her reluctant body still made her tingle all over.
As soon as the last of the lather headed for the drain, she turned off the water and reached for the towel. Her skin felt smooth and hydrated, but her hair was still a mess. She wrapped herself in the towel and carefully opened the door. Her daypack was nowhere in sight. Instead, there was a royal blue dress, or was it a bathrobe? The garment was neatly folded so she wasn’t sure. On top of the mystery garment was a brush, comb, toothbrush, and deodorant. She couldn’t decide if she was thankful or insulted. She’d been on the run less than twenty-four hours. She’d just felt grimy because she’d slept in a cave.
It was pretty obvious that her choice was the dress or the towel so Ansley slid the pile into the bathroom with her foot. She closed the door but didn’t bother locking it. If they had wanted to invade her privacy, they could have at any time.
The dress wrapped around her body, overlapping in front. The sides were held in place by an attached belt. It was styled like a bathrobe, but the fabric was silky and shone with a faint iridescence. She still wasn’t sure if it was meant to be a bathrobe or a dress. After working the tangles out of her hair and brushing her teeth, she applied a coat of deodorant and inspected her appearance in the mirror. Faint shadows circled her eyes revealing her stress and sleep deprivation, but otherwise she looked unaffected by her ordeal.
“Your meal is getting cold,” Jobek’s deep voice echoed in the outer room. “You’ve loitered in the bathroom long enough.”
She was finished anyway. The justification soothed the sting of doing what he wanted her to do. She opened the door and walked out into the living room. A rich, yeasty scent filled her nose as if someone was baking bread. “What smells so good?”
“The nutrition library indicated that this meal would appeal to most humans from your sector of the planet,” Tandor said proudly as he motioned toward the table.
Curious now, Ansley crossed to the kitchen area and felt her jaw drop. In the center of the table was a Dutch oven filled with pot roast complete with potatoes and carrots. Beside the roast was a basket piled high with fresh baked dinner rolls. “How in the world did you do this in the time it took me to take a shower?”
Jobek just smiled enigmatically, but Tandor motioned toward the device inset in the wall above one of the counters. She’d thought it was a microwave when she first entered the house.
“Matter generator,” Tandor told her. “That model specializes in organic compounds.”
“If it tastes as good as it smells, I’ll never cook again.”
They sat down around the table and Jobek dished up the roast. Tandor filled their glasses with a reddish-orange liquid Ansley hoped was something similar to wine. Her first sip allayed her fear. Though likely not from Earth, the light, slightly spicy taste coordinated well with the familiar entree.
Ansley had cleared her plate before Tandor asked her what she thought. “The meat is perfectly cooked, but the gravy is a little too garlic heavy for me. I can’t believe this came out of that machine.”
“The molecular patterns are derived from the actual items,” Jobek argued. “It should be identical to Yankee pot roast.”
His defensive tone made Ansley smile. “I didn’t mean to insult you. I appreciate your effort and the dish is still enjoyable. But, in my opinion, whoever created the sample used too much garlic. Food is objective. What pleases one person might be off-putting to someone else. The rolls are amazing.” She popped the last bite of her second into her mouth to prove her point.
“I will report your suggestion to the editors. If enough people agree with you, they will adjust the pattern accordingly.”
She acknowledged his comment with a nod and took another sip of wine. “Why were the human selections created in the first place? How many humans are in your star system?”
“To my knowledge, there aren’t any,” Jobek stressed. “You might have grown up on Earth, but you are not human.”
She stopped just short of glaring at him. “You know what I mean. Who requested human food?” Whenever she asked too many questions, Jobek shut down. His features hardened and his gaze narrowed. Luckily for her, Tandor tended to take over whenever Jobek switched into controller mode.
“You and your friends are not the first set of conduits to be rescued from Earth,” Tandor explained. “A group of cousins preceded you by a few months. One of them is now mated with Commander Cylex and she is anxious to speak with you.”
Quickly fortifying herself with a sip of wine, Ansley asked, “What can she tell me that I don’t already know? I’m expected to bond with two males, likely ones I barely know. And once the soul bond has formed, I will lose control over the rest of my life.”
“You have never had control over your life,” Jobek countered. “You were taken from your home world without the permission of your families and convinced that you were human. Your power was suppressed and you were basically imprisoned on a secluded island. Your entire life has been a lie. All we are doing is restoring what is rightfully yours. Why does that make us the villains?”
She shook her head as anxiety swelled inside her. “You’re twisting everything. The founders were protecting us. They didn’t want us to become weapons of war, so they—”
“The only thing they were protecting was theirinvestment,” Jobek cut in, his tone sharp and emphatic. “They likely have buyers lined up for every one of you. And they hid you away on that island because virgin conduits are worth a lot more than sexually experienced conduits.”
